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In the spring of 1871, the French government capitulated to Prussia.
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Paris, which had resisted the enemy siege during the Winter, refused this decision taken by a monarchist-majority parliament.
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On March 18th, 1871, the government led by Adolphe Thiers fled the capital for Versailles. Paris then became autonomous, electing its own government called “Commune”.
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For seventy-two days, many reforms were carried out: abolition of the death penalty, establishment of a minimum wage, development of women’s right, opening of citizenship to foreigners, freedom of the press proclaimed…
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On May 21st, the government army entered Paris.
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And then began, the semaine sanglante.
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Six o'clock in the evening, Friday May 24, 1871.
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The Pantheon is occupied.
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The Federated battalions descend in inexpressible disorder.
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Dark faces, dirty with dust and gunpowder, torn clothes.
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Montmartre is occupied since yesterday.
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and it's the shells taken there by the army
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that are bombing the neighborhood.
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The time for enthusiastic ballots has ended.
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The machine guns jolt on the pavement of the rue Lacépède, dragged by fighters.
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We left the horses up there.
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The shooting has stopped. The dock is still ours.
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Why don't we rest?
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I haven't had a minute's sleep in two days.
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In the morning, I wanted to lie down on the balcony of a friend's house,
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in rue Gay-Lussac.
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The bullets dislodged me.
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I sat down inside, on a sofa,
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and again a projectile,
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piercing the glass, came whistling to my ear.
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It seemed that it came from the bell tower of the Saint Jacques's church.
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Beware, in these days of battle, of bell towers.
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If we went into this little hotel, near the Cuvier fountain...
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There are five or six of us who have made the same plan.
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At ten o'clock, everything is still silent.
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Certainly the troop also needs to bivouac after the fight.
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We have the night ahead of us.
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I snore like someone who hasn't slept for two days.
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I snore with such serenity
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that it's five o'clock on my watch when
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the sun, freely breaking through the window,
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forces my eyes to open.
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At the same time, one of my comrades enters abruptly.
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-The versaillais are here, we are surrounded…
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I run to the window.
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Downstairs, the small square on which the gate of the Jardin des Plantes opens
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is filled with soldiers.
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In the middle, a pile of weapons surrounded by a group of soldiers.
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A strong man, square-shouldered, with a tricolor armband on his sleeve,
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brandishes a rifle and crushes its butt on the pile.
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- Another one! he shouts with a furious voice.
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Uniforms, kepis, belts thrown randomly on the pavement.
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Leaning against the gate, two national guards in the camp of the Versaillais.
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Blue kepis with wide white stripe,
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revolver in yellow leather sheath,
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high boots.
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Saber at the side, grey capote.
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Tricolor armband sewn to the sleeve.
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We need to go, to flee anywhere, but quickly.
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Already, we see the platoons forming,
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entering the neighboring houses,
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coming out with seized weapons,
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packages, and prisoners.
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But I have papers,
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and very compromising ones.
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A pass card for the Place Vendôme
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on the day the column fell.
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That's already something...
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Another one, even more incriminating,
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the green card issued by the Commune,
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a kind of ticket that was only given for good reasons.
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It indicates my name,
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and my profession.
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That's enough to get me shot without further examination.
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I quickly tear up the two cards,
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and slip the pieces under the carpet nailed to the floor.
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We go out, the friend who came to pick me up and I.
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My heart is pounding when I set foot on the first step.
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Let’s go !
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And as the door of the small hotel is cluttered by soldiers who talk and laugh,
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and who block me the way, I stand by, waiting for them to make a space for me,
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a little blonde girl of three or four years
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whose crazy curls I stroke,
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as if I were a regular of the house.
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Try to take me, with that,
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for an insurgent...
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Let's go back to the Quarter, eh?
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I say to my friend.
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At the turn of the street Lacépède...
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The shots of a firing squad, very close.
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It comes from the Jardin des plantes. I turn around.
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The officer with the tricolor armband is still there.
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He pulls over, a group walks by.
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Surrounded by bayoneted soldiers, two civilians.
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Executions began.
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Let’s go.
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Everywhere soldiers, hunters, Versaillais fighters that I saw the day before,
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before the attack on the Pantheon,
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behind the gates of the Luxembourg and in front of the barricade of the rue Soufflot.
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The pubs are full of them.
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They toast loudly, on the zinc,
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ringing the guns on the floor,
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throwing away the white pieces, their belt stuffed with revolvers.
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We arrive at the street of the old-Estrapade.
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There, a barricade.
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Two officers with armbands and gray capotes.
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- Let's go, they shout to those who pass by, let's destroy it! Quickly!
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We need to take our paving stone, to throw it in the ditch full of weapons and uniforms.
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- And to think that among these scoundrels, he shouts, there are some who have built it...
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And after a pause:
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- Well, the pigs, they paid for it.
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You should have seen that, last night, in the Jardin du Luxembourg !
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Now, the dreadful sight of the day after the victory.
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Broken streets,
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houses flayed by shells and bullets,
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black and red cobblestones, black with gunpowder, red with blood,
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sidewalks sown with a thousand different things thrown out of the windows....
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We must hasten to get rid of anything that might remind the investigators
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that we are involved, in any way,
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with the Commune.
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Even today, historians argue about the number of executions that took place during the semaine sanglante (bloody week).
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Their assessments vary between 5,000...
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and 30,000 deaths.
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Text extracted from " Mes cahiers rouges " by Maxime Vuillaume.
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Written during and after the Commune.
Published between 1908 and 1914.
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The descendants of Thiers have worked well
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There are no more cannons to confiscate
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The bankruptcy of the system is ordinary
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Rocked by a reactionary violence
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No plaques, no street names,
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no tears shed on our flowers,
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no statues, no Sacred Heart.